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This teacher needs your help!

Mrs. McCarthy from Saint Petersburg, FL is requesting educational kits & games through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

See what Mrs. McCarthy is requesting

Building Equity Through Imaginative Play

Help me give my students trains, cars, and racetracks to expand their imagination and learn through play.

  • $285 goal

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Hooray! This project is fully funded

Celebrate Black Teachers and Students

This project is part of the Black History Month celebration because it supports a Black teacher or a school where the majority of the students are Black.

My Students

Our school serves students in grades Pre-K-5th and provides strong academics, creative teachers, and a safe learning environment. We are a low-income, Title I school. We use seven habits of happy kids and a growth mindset. This, combined with the emphasis on academics, has ensured that our students grow to become well-rounded, successful, and happy students. My little students are the youngest of Pre-K, 3’s. We are blended gen ed and ESE special needs.

In our classroom, we are a diverse group of learners who come together as a family, supporting each other, and learning together.

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn." -Ignacio Estrada.

My students understand, no matter what their exceptionalism, their possibilities are limitless.

These special students require teachers to draw from their heart to reach each student emotionally, thereby gaining their trust to encourage them academically. One needs to create a safe and loving classroom that allows students to be comfortable to challenge themselves to meet the high learning expectations. My students have the ability. They just need to find it within themselves, to become lifelong learners.

My Project

Play taps into learners' strengths. Recognizing that play is literacy acknowledges its semiotic power as a literary tool and a creative resource that expresses meaning, invites collaborative storymaking, and provides a space where players can pretend together to make sense of—or make over—their collective experience. Let's reimagine the types of play in literacy learning while also challenging them with exciting toys: bright colored trains, wooden tracks, cars, reace cars and race tracks, with which all types of playful experience to occur.

Equity is best confronted and improved through developing and expanding of imagination through play.

Imaginative play empowers children to strengthen their imagination, to think out of the box, while having fun. My scholars love trains and cars. The conversations, storytelling, and imaginative is amazing! By offering this play in a safe space with peers is offering equity in play for my scholars, who may otherwise not be able to afford these types of toys, types of interactions, and chance to be creatively free with their imaginations. Imaginations are what fuels academics, STEM, and advances in the world, by being able to think out of the box. Help give my scholars this chance to learn, imagine and have fun through play.

Mrs. McCarthy
Grades PreK-2

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Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Mrs. McCarthy is requesting.

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Where Your Donation Goes

Materials Cost Quantity Total
Orbrium Toys 68 Pcs Wooden Train Track Expansion Pack Compatible with Thomas Wooden Train, Brio, Thomas The Tank Engine • Amazon Business $28.95 2 $57.90
Wooden Trains Set (21 PCS) with 3 Dinosaurs 3 Farm 3 Zoo Animals with Box and Cover - Train Toys Magnetic Set Toy Train Sets for Kids Toddler Gift Toy for 2 Year Old Boys and Girls and up • Amazon Business $27.95 1 $27.95
Thomas & Friends MINIS, 20 Pack • Amazon Business $25.99 1 $25.99
TOP BRIGHT Toddler Toys Race Track Car Gifts for 1 2 3 Year Old Boys - with Wooden Car Ramp, Parking Lot & Gas Station • Amazon Business $24.99 1 $24.99
Tiny Conductors 12 Wooden Train Cars, 1 Bonus Crane, 4 Bonus Connectors, Locomotive Tank Engines and Wagons for Toy Train Tracks, Compatible with Thomas Wood Toy Railroad Set (Trains) • Amazon Business $22.99 1 $22.99
Hot Wheels 20 Car Gift Pack (Styles May Vary), Multicolor, 7.6" T • Amazon Business $21.99 1 $21.99
Thomas & Friends MINIS Toy Trains 10-Pack of female characters with stylish designs • Amazon Business $14.99 1 $14.99
GeekHouse Wooden Race Track Car with 8 Mini Cars for Toddler, Ramp Racer Toy Set for 3+ Year Old Kid, Early Educational Gift for Boy and Girl • Amazon Business $11.99 1 $11.99

Materials cost

$208.79

Vendor shipping charges

FREE

Sales tax

$0.00

3rd party payment processing fee

$3.13

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$241.92

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$42.69

Total project goal

$284.61

How we calculate what's needed

Total project goal

$284.61

1 Donor

-$241.92

Donations toward project cost

-$241.92

Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

-$0.00

Excluded support for DonorsChoose

-$42.69

Still needed View calculationHide calculation

$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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